Events

“The Transcendentalist Spirit and an Evolutionary Spirituality”

Event details

May 15, 2018

7:00 pm - 8:30 pm

245 Porter Lake Dr.
Springfield, MA 01106

413-736-2324

In the nineteenth century, the Transcendentalist movement exploded around a Unitarian minister named Ralph Waldo Emerson, and shook the religious world. It proposed an evolutionary spiritual vision where the ground beneath us is always moving and higher human possibilities transcend the barbarisms of the past. By its very nature, it produced heroic leaders in the struggle against slavery, the brutality against “Indian” tribes, and the subjugation of women.

A vision and a passion we need now—and it’s the gift of our own Unitarian Universalist story, but few UUs know it. Come and meet the Transcendentalists, who remind us that the future is in our hands! As Jay reminds us, “Religion will serve either as a powerful lock on the archaic past, or as a powerful engine for the evolution of consciousness.” Here’s an evolutionary spiritual vision that can revitalize our Unitarian Universalist movement.

ABOUT JAY DEACON:

Dr. Deacon is minister a longtime Unitarian Universalist minister. He has served congregations in Northampton MA; Newport RI; Manchester NH; Bangor; Orlando; and in the United Kingdom, in London and Aberdeen. He led the creation of Unity Temple Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Oak Park, Illinois by consolidating two UU congregations, leading UTUUC from 1993 to 2002.

As Director of the UUA Office of GLBT Concerns in the 1980s, Jay led the development of the Welcoming Congregation Program. Previously he founded the Metropolitan Community Church of Hartford and served Good Shepherd Parish MCC in Chicago.

He is a longtime student of the Transcendentalist movement and is a member of the Ralph Waldo Emerson Society. He’s author of Magnificent Journey: Religion as Lock on the Past or Engine of Evolution. More info: www.jaydeacon.net